CHILDREN PROGRAM
Winter Camp for all the children

As we have been doing since many years, these holidays the kids could enjoy the Winter Camp. The objective was that the children enjoy a recreational space favoring a healthy growth with stimulation to overcome school failure, isolation, and malnutrition.

More than a hundred children attended de Winter Camp, and volunteers from the neighborhood and from France helped to plan and carry out the activities, getting together with Silvina, Children Program Coordinator, and playing with the kids so that everything worked out well.

“The idea is to take advantage of winter holidays helping the kids stay away from the streets and more risky situations”, said Silvina. “Through games, children develop their imagination and creativity, they build their character, and they learn to socialize with other kids and adults, with norms, respect, and positive values”, she adds.

The first days, the kids could enjoy tales and stories, and several types of games. On Thursday, the children were appalled by a special visit: lizards, snakes, rabbits, doves, frogs, and a very large variety of animals. They learnt about these animals’ behaviors and alimentation habits.

Carolina Cardozo, a 12 year old girl who had always attended Summer Camp and who this year decided to be a volunteer, says: “I liked the rabbits, the doves, the snakes, Friday’s activity, my reading to the younger kids… I liked everything”.

Every day, before leaving the camp, the kids ate cereals with milk, a very well received news, that not only aimed to give the children a nutritive meal but also to enthusiasm them so that they eat it at home.

CHILDREN PROGRAM
French volunteers worked with the schools

For the second year in a row, French volunteers of Horizon Argentine joined EnAccion in the work with the schools and to collaborate in the Summer Camp. This experience stimulated the children, as it got them closer to new materials and situations. They were really excited about the new focus.

Besides, it generated many positive effects, like changing the vision that the teachers had of the children by appreciating more their capacities, or developing the relationship between EnAccion and the schools of the area, promoting their opening to the community and the network concept.

The volunteers arrived on Sunday, July 30 and during the first week they collaborated with the development of the Winter Camp. They joined the activities, they played with the children and collaborated so that everything went well. The two following weeks they carried out workshops in schools No. 13 and 18. After having preparation meetings with the directors in March, they carried out workshops about Geography and culture, Photography and cinema, Handicrafts, Journalism and Vocational orientation.

“I was in a situation were I had the children in front of me and they expected something. I didn’t know if I was going to be able to perform well, but I just through myself into it and started with what we had prepared”, Jessica says, one of the French volunteers. And the children reacted very well, they participated, made interviews and recorded them on tape, took pictures, wrote comics, danced and visited the zoo.

Finally after exposing their photograph works and watching the videos they made, the children saw off their French friends in the middle of dances, hugs, and letters.